Like Joseph in Beauty: Yemeni Vernacular Poetry and Arab-Jewish Symbiosis (Brill Studies in Middle Eastern Literatures)

373 Pages·2008·2.09 MB·English

by  Mark S. Wagner

Like Joseph in Beauty
Brill Studies in Middle Eastern
Literatures
The Studies in Arabic Literature series, which was inaugurated in 1971
to publish monographic supplements to the Journal of Arabic Literature,
has now expanded its purview to include other literatures (Persian,
Turkish, etc.) of the Islamic Middle East. While preserving the same
format as SAL, the title of the expanded series will be Brill Studies in
Middle Eastern Literatures. As in the past, the series aims to publish
literary critical and historical studies on a broad range of literary mate-
rials: classical and modern, written and oral, poetry and prose. It will
also publish scholarly translations of major literary works. Studies that
seek to integrate Middle Eastern literatures into the broader discourses
of the humanities and the social sciences will take their place alongside
works of a more technical and specialized nature. We hope to announce
shortly an advisory board for the expanded BSMEL series.
Edited by
Suzanne Pinckney Stetkevych
VOLUME XXXIII
Like Joseph in Beauty
Yemeni Vernacular Poetry and
Arab-Jewish Symbiosis
by
Mark S. Wagner
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2009
Cover illustration: detail from Carsten Niebuhr, Beschreibung von Arabien
(Copenhagen, 1772)
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wagner, Mark S.
Like Joseph in beauty : Yemeni vernacular poetry and Arab-Jewish symbiosis / by
Mark S. Wagner.
p. cm. — (Brill studies in Middle Eastern literatures ; vol. 34)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-90-04-16840-4 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Arabic poetry—Yemen
(Republic)—History and criticism. 2. Arabic poetry—Jewish authors—History and
criticism. 3. Jewish religious poetry, Arabic—Yemen—History and criticism. I. Title.
PJ8007.2.W34 2008
892.7’1099533—dc22
2008035393
ISSN 1571-5183
ISBN 978 90 04 16840 4
Copyright 2009 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing,
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printed in the netherlands
For Melissa

CONTENTS
Acknowledgements ............................................................................ xi
List of Abbreviations ......................................................................... xiii
A Note on Translation ...................................................................... xv
Introduction ........................................................................................ 1
PART ONE
THE POETICS OF ḤUMAYNĪ VERSE
Chapter One: Defining the Ḥumaynī Poem ................................ 11
Origins ............................................................................................. 11
Parts of the Poem .......................................................................... 28
Music ............................................................................................... 30
Chapter Two: Dialect in Ḥumaynī Poetry .................................... 33
Ḥumaynī and Humor ................................................................... 33
Code-Switching .............................................................................. 36
The “Safīnah Circle” and Heteroglossia .................................... 45
Conclusions .................................................................................... 64
PART TWO
ḤUMAYNĪ POETRY IN THE YEMENI CULTURAL
AND LITERARY LANDSCAPE
Chapter Three: A Golden Age of Ḥumaynī Poetry ..................... 71
Formal Poetic Patronage .............................................................. 71
Informal Poetic Patronage ........................................................... 80
Qāt, Coffee, Tobacco, and Wine ................................................ 82
Weddings ........................................................................................ 92
Madhhab Partisanship and Ḥumaynī Poetry ........................... 101
viii contents
Chapter Four: The Status of Ḥumaynī Poetry .............................. 107
The Decline of Arabic Literature—Yemeni Views .................. 107
Hazl .................................................................................................. 115
Composition and Collection ....................................................... 124
Inspiration ...................................................................................... 127
The “Safīnah Circle” and Inspiration ......................................... 133
The Prestige of Ḥumaynī Poetry ................................................ 142
PART THREE
SHABAZIAN POETRY
Chapter Five: R. Sālim al-Shabazī and the Shabaziyyāt .............. 147
The Life of R. Sālim al-Shabazī ................................................... 147
Al-Shabazī’s Poetry: The Serri-Tobi Manuscripts .................... 153
The Roots of the Shabazian Efflorescence ................................. 156
The Prestige Poem in Focus ........................................................ 172
Conclusion ...................................................................................... 192
Chapter Six: Shabazian Eroticism, Kabbalah and Dor Deʿah ..... 195
The Spring and the Snake ............................................................ 195
Esoteric Interpretation: Yaḥyā Qoraḥ’s Commentaries
on the Dīwān ............................................................................. 199
The Problem of the Exoteric Interpretation of
Shabazian Poetry ....................................................................... 212
Dor Deʿah and Shabazian Poetry ................................................ 219
Conclusion ...................................................................................... 239
PART FOUR
ḤUMAYNĪ AND MODERNITY
Chapter Seven: Ḥumaynī Poetry and Revolution
in Twentieth-Century Yemen ..................................................... 243
A Strange Encounter in the Poet’s Paradise ............................. 243
Popular Culture and Neo-Tribal Poetry ................................... 245
The Four Styles .............................................................................. 247
Revolutionary Ḥumaynī Poetry .................................................. 254
Continuity in Modern Ḥumaynī Poetry ................................... 259
contents ix
Mutạ hhar al-Iryānī—the Apotheosis of Ḥumaynī? ................. 265
ʿAbdallah Salām Nājī and the Popular ...................................... 268
Nājī al-Ḥamīdī: Neo-Tribal Poetry at the Close of the
Twentieth Century .................................................................... 271
Conclusions .................................................................................... 274
Chapter Eight: Shabazī in Tel Aviv ................................................ 277
Formative Yemeni Israeli Culture .............................................. 277
The Yemeni and the Mizraḥi ...................................................... 280
The Poetry of Disillusionment .................................................... 284
Conclusions .................................................................................... 295
Conclusion .......................................................................................... 299
Appendix One: The Word “Ḥumaynī” .......................................... 307
Appendix Two: Ḥumaynī Form, Structure, and Prosody ............ 311
Appendix Three: Orthography and Prosody in ST ..................... 317
Bibliography ........................................................................................ 327
References in Arabic ..................................................................... 327
References in Judeo-Arabic and Hebrew .................................. 330
References in European Languages ............................................ 334
Index .................................................................................................... 341